Yahoo to provide web search to Orange mobile users

Internet search engines seem keen to get hold of mobile users and encourage them to use their services on the move.

In the latest move, Yahoo have done a deal with Orange to get its mobile Web portal onto their network and into the mitts of their users.

It’s a bit of a Google-Yahoo battle – isn’t it always?

Yahoo have already done a deal with 3, whereas Google have teamed up with both T-Mobile and Vodafone.

One distinct advantage for all concerned (hopefully including the
customer) is search results based upon geographical location. Of
course, it’s also likely to generate extra advertising revenue for the
search engines and mobile operators.

Providing a search engine for a mobile that works well needs more work
and attention to content than the desktop equivalents we’re all used
to. For one thing, there’s a wider variety of handsets and capabilities
to deal with, and there’s issues of bandwidth, ease of data entry,
navigation, and so on.

What do you reckon? Would you want to be able to Yahoo! or Google on
the move from your mobile? Would geo-targeted services be good?